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motherboard battery

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catford
catford Posts: 1,114 Forumite
what does the watch type battery on my m/board supply power to and what problems occur when it runs low??

Comments

  • frak
    frak Posts: 112 Forumite
    This is the CMOS battery.
    It provides power so the machine can remeber all its specific hardware congurations. For example - processor speed, memory timings, hard drives, cdrom. It all allows the system date and time to be remembered.
    If it fails your CMOS will reset to defualts every time you boot and the clock will reset. At best your pc wont run at optimal settings and you will have to change the clock every time you boot, At worst your machine might not boot at all

    frak
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  • Had this happen on my last PC. First inkling was the date and time throwing up something completely random every time I switched on. From there it just went from bad to worse.
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  • andy88_2
    andy88_2 Posts: 3,676 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    If the machine is on mains standby, then a flat battery will only be discovered when disconnected.

    What is a typical battery life? Similar to a wristwatch or less?
  • bbb_uk
    bbb_uk Posts: 2,108 Forumite
    Most CMOS batteries are of the type you describe and will probably have the code CR2032 (or something similiar). Computer shops, and electronic stores like Maplin sell these batteries. The batteries generally last a long time (several years+) and are a few pound (I think as it's been a very long time since having to buy one)
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